April 29. Disasters in Los Angeles

It's April 29.  Los Angeles, The city I love, live in and work for commemorates ( not celebrates)  two horrific events.

April 29, 1986. Central Library Arson fire.

I remember exactly where I was when I heard about it.  Although it may seem I have been there forever, I was working in the Department of Transportation, Parking Enforcement ( or as I call it "a Season in Hell")  One of the Supervisors, Birdie Westmoreland, called out that Central was on fire.  They knew I was "Library" having worked in branches for 6.5 years.  They got tired of me asking for updates and plunked a spare "rover" ( radio) on my desk.  I heard them say "There's smoke coming through the top of the tower".  I turned off the radio, put my head on my desk and wept.  I thought the collection was gone.

The fire brought volunteers from all parts of the City to help.  I could not go, as I had just had the surgery to "fix" why I could not get pregnant and was forbidden to lift anything over 5 pounds.  Six months later, I started working in Branch Library Services and seven months later became pregnant with Kate ( nice how that worked out!)  The Save the Books Campaign begun in the ashes of that fire, when the good folks at ARCO came to offer any and all assistance.  We had prime real estate in ARCO Tower for about a year.  I know my friends who were still working in the building did so under unfathomably filthy conditions, but did so with a love and a sense of humor and purpose that is unmatched.   I always say that the fire made the people in the City realize how precious library service, the Central Library and their local branch means to them.   Out of this tragedy came a newer, bigger and better library system.  We passed TWO bond measures and Measure L which grew, strengthened and improved library service for all who use our system. The fire allowed new technology for water logged books to be tested on an unprecedented scale.  Some good did come from it.

On a side note, I hope the firebug who did it is "enjoying" the fires of Hell.  He was never able to be convicted, but he did it. He's dead now.  Good.



The King Riots April 29, 1992

I remember being in the office with co-workers when the verdicts came down.   Literally, I felt the energy in the room shift, suddenly iced cold.  I ran to my phone to call the Day Care Center where my then four year old daughter was a student.  It was across the street from Parker Center.  The daycare worker I talked to said I was overreacting when I told her they should get the kids in the inside rooms.  I KNEW Parker Center would be some sort of flash point, but she dismissed my worries with a "pfft".  I called my brother-in-law, with whom I was commuting, told him NOT to dawdle and he met me at the Center at 5 on the dot.  I remember running to the car, my brother-in-law with my daughter under his arm, passing the Japanese Heritage museum who had had an event planned that evening.  Workers were hurriedly pulling chairs that had been staged and tossing them into the building.  The wind picked up and it smelled like chaos.  We watched from home as the mayhem began unfolding.  They tired to burn down Parker Center and when that failed, went on to City Hall South where the Daycare Center was housed.  I kept my daughter home with her father and went to work.  They sent us home at about three and we did not go back until the following Monday.

 We lost two libraries that were housed in mini-mall sites.  One neighborhood, the John Muir branch community. saw neighbors forming a bucket brigade to save the building. They saved about half of it.

We were told at the time to refer to the event as a "Civil Unrest "  How sweet and politically correct.  I'm sorry  THAT was a RIOT.  The things I saw and will always remember:

 A Mother proudly patting her son in front of tv cameras saying "He stole this shirt.  He's a man now"

Two neighbors, arguing about burning down the grocery store "Oh I have groceries I took before they burned it down, you can have some "  "YES, but you burned down the STORE. Where do we get groceries when THOSE run out?  Don't you see what you've DONE?"

The four people who risked their own lives to save Reginald Denny and countless others who tried to help stop the destruction, including King himself, looking tearful as he asked "Can't we all just get along?"


I understand anger.  I am not in a position or a place where I can say I understand the underlying rage in communities, because, well, I can't.  Did some good come out of all of this?  Maybe.  Maybe dialogues began, maybe friendships were forged and new organizations dealing with the issues that were brought to the forefront by all of this have BEGUN to make a difference.   We have a long way to go. If we learned anything, we have learned that.